García Márquez's Pentimenti

Latin American Studie

Give Back to Impact: (Re)considering the Motivation for Latinx College Student Organization Involvement and Leadership

A follow-up study to the author’s original 2017 study on the impact of Latinx student involvement was performed to understand reasons for Latinx community, civic, and artistic involvement.  In the original investigation, Latinx college student organization members were interviewed to reflect on the impact of their college involvement 20 years after college graduation.  Latinx college student organizations were described as providing skills for personal, career and educational advancement, as well as motivation for community advocacy. This follow up study provides findings using participants from the original to explain reasons for community involvement and how Latinx college student organizations instilled motivation for such activity.  Recommendations are provided for further investigations on these groups and their long-term effects.   

Less than/more than: Issues associated with high-impact online teaching and learning

The increased presence of online education in higher education in the United States continues to challenge educators in their perceptions of teaching and learning experiences in virtual environments. While critiques of online education typically focus on its “less than” shortcomings, this literature review encourages educators to take a “more than” approach when providing institutional support. Online education provides beneficial outcomes for faculty, students, and administration when viewed for its potential in providing innovative teaching and learning. The financial challenges involved in providing these practices are addressed to justify investment in faculty effort, organizational support and professional development, and equitable student support

Heterogeneity in the COVID-19 Pandemic’s Labor Market Effects

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor market outcomes in the United States drastically changed as the country entered its first recession since the Great Recession. The lives of millions of Americans became upended as economic shutdowns and lockdown orders spread across the United States. This paper attempts to quantify and examine the heterogeneity of employment trends before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic along the following four dimensions: race/ethnicity, gender, education, and age. By using cross-sectional data from the Current Population Survey, I gathered a representative sample of different demographic groups in the United States. My objective is to add to the literature by analyzing changes in the employment to population ratio for individual demographic groups through 2021 and 2022. I find that the impacts of COVID-19 on the employment outcomes of these groups varied, but there were many commonalities. While the demographic groups whose employment to population ratios were expected to experience the largest declines in the pandemic year of 2020 did see the largest reductions, many of them also exhibited rapid recoveries in 2021 and 2022. This paper reveals that some of the employment trends observed among the demographic groups may be the result of exogenous factors

Gender Ideals and Determinant Factors for Marriage in Contemporary Mexico

Bereniz Montelongo’s research essay, Gender Ideals and Determinant Factors for Marriage in Contemporary Mexico, explores the link between characteristics of gender and marital norms throughout Mexico. Beginning with the colonial period and moving into the contemporary era, Bereniz identifies how marital norms have shifted in relation to changing views of gender roles. She examines factors like the idea of women as both caregivers and breadwinners, the level of value placed on marriage, and Mexico’s standards for same-sex marriage. This paper was written for Margarita Ochoa’s First Year Seminar Class: History of Race and Gender

Cultural Factors that Impact Latina/o College Student Success at Predominantly-White Institutions: Past and Current Knowledge for Educators

As the new century approached in 2000, educational leaders, practitioners, and researchers were continuing to understand the educational experiences of the fastest growing student population in the United States – Latina/os. Knowledge on factors influencing outcomes for this group were produced to inform educators. However, Latina/os continue to face barriers and challenges at all levels in their pursuit of educational opportunity, especially in higher education. The significance of the demographic shifts Latina/os bring to education should give educators a sense of urgency to better understand cultural factors that impact Latina/o student success. This paper will provide an overview of the academic literature just prior to and immediately after the new century to help understand specific cultural factors on socialization, involvement, and advancement of Latina/o college students at predominantly white institutions (PWI’s)

The effect of short-term water stress on leaf isoprene emission

This study measured the photosynthetic rate and isoprene emission from red oaks (Quercus rubra) during drought stress conditions. Over a period of 30 days, the trees were grown outdoors on a rooftop. The experimental group was subject to drought stress while the control group was watered regularly. The measurements from each group were compared to determine differences. The results indicated that isoprene emissions do not increase directly from drought stress, and that whole plant increases are due to indirect increases in leaf temperature caused by drought conditions

A deep learning framework for contingent liabilities risk management : predicting Brazilian labor court decisions

Estimar o resultado de um processo em litígio é crucial para muitas organizações. Uma aplicação específica são os "Passivos Contingenciais", que se referem a passivos que podem ou não ocorrer dependendo do resultado de um processo judicial em litígio. A metodologia tradicional para estimar essa probabilidade baseia-se na opinião de um advogado quem determina a possibilidade de um processo judicial ser perdido a partir de uma avaliação quantitativa. Esta tese apresenta a um modelo matemático baseado numa arquitetura de Deep Learning cujo objetivo é estimar a probabilidade de ganho ou perda de um processo de litígio, principalmente para ser utilizada na estimação de Passivos Contingenciais. A arquitetura, diferentemente do método tradicional, oferece um maior grau de confiança ao prever o resultado de um processo legal em termos de probabilidade e com um tempo de processamento de segundos. Além do resultado primário, a arquitetura estima uma amostra dos casos mais semelhantes ao processo estimado, que servem de apoio para a realização de estratégias de litígio. Nossa arquitetura foi testada em duas bases de dados de processos legais: (1) o Tribunal Europeu de Direitos Humanos (ECHR) e (2) o 4º Tribunal Regional do Trabalho brasileiro (4TRT). Ela estimou de acordo com nosso conhecimento, o melhor desempenho já publicado (precisão = 0,906) na base de dados da ECHR, uma coleção amplamente utilizada de processos legais, e é o primeiro trabalho a aplicar essa metodologia em um tribunal de trabalho brasileiro. Os resultados mostram que a arquitetura é uma alternativa adequada a ser utilizada contra o método tradicional de estimação do desfecho de um processo em litígio realizado por advogados. Finalmente, validamos nossos resultados com especialistas que confirmaram as possibilidades promissoras da arquitetura. Assim, nos incentivamos os académicos a continuar desenvolvendo pesquisas sobre modelagem matemática na área jurídica, pois é um tema emergente com um futuro promissor e aos usuários a utilizar ferramentas baseadas como a desenvolvida em nosso trabalho, pois fornecem vantagens substanciais em termos de precisão e velocidade sobre os métodos convencionais.Estimating the likely outcome of a litigation process is crucial for many organizations. A specific application is the “Contingents Liabilities,” which refers to liabilities that may or may not occur depending on the result of a pending litigation process (lawsuit). The traditional methodology for estimating this likelihood is based on the opinion from the lawyer’s experience which is based on a qualitative appreciation. This dissertation presents a mathematical modeling framework based on a Deep Learning architecture that estimates the probability outcome of a litigation process (accepted & not accepted) with a particular use on Contingent Liabilities. The framework offers a degree of confidence by describing how likely an event will occur in terms of probability and provides results in seconds. Besides the primary outcome, it offers a sample of the most similar cases to the estimated lawsuit that serve as support to perform litigation strategies. We tested our framework in two litigation process databases from: (1) the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and (2) the Brazilian 4th regional labor court. Our framework achieved to our knowledge the best-published performance (precision = 0.906) on the ECHR database, a widely used collection of litigation processes, and it is the first to be applied in a Brazilian labor court. Results show that the framework is a suitable alternative to be used against the traditional method of estimating the verdict outcome from a pending litigation performed by lawyers. Finally, we validated our results with experts who confirmed the promising possibilities of the framework. We encourage academics to continue developing research on mathematical modeling in the legal area as it is an emerging topic with a promising future and practitioners to use tools based as the proposed, as they provides substantial advantages in terms of accuracy and speed over conventional methods

The New Chicana Heroine: Representations of Anzaldua\u27s Mestiza Consciousness in Chicana Feminist Cultural Productions

This thesis analyzes Gloria Anzaldúa‟s mestiza consciousness as a representation seen thematically in Chicana feminist cultural productions. Mestiza consciousness, defined in Anzaldúa‟s Borderlands/La Frontera, is a non-binary feminist ideology, which proposes a third space in female identity, explored in terms of gender, class, race, and sexuality identification. The representation of mestiza consciousness in Chicana feminist cultural productions is proposed as a new trope in Chicana\o cultural studies, which I term the “New Chicana Heroine.” The New Chicana Heroine is both a proposal and representation of a third space in female identity. An examination of several authors, artists, and filmmakers, spanning multiple decades and genres, are viewed to distinguish the New Chicana Heroine as a distinct female representation. The Chicano nationalist ideology of La Familia and Chicana mother‟s role are indicated as key influences in the formation of Chicana identity and the identification of the New Chicana Heroine